那个孩子 那条大河－－读哈克贝利·费恩
心底无私天地宽，大河上的孩子，说的正是你吗？...
那个孩子 那条大河
兰卿娘跟你读《哈克贝利·费恩历险记》
文／兰卿娘编／张小红
继续跟着红爷读文学看书评的朋友，大概还记得前几期Tom Sawyer历险的经历吧？这一期主角换成了Tom的朋友Huckleberry Finn(简称”Huck”)，这个十三四岁的白人小孩，和Tom一样调皮聪明，原本是个衣衫破烂、随处为家、逍遥自在的社会弃儿，在The Adventures of Tom Sawyer的结尾，他和Tom偶然发现一笔意外之财。小说The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn便以此开头，Huck因不愿被文明社会收养而选择出逃，乘着木筏，随着奔流直下的密西西比河一路漂流，其间最动人心扉的便是他与成人黑奴Jim的木筏情谊。
这部小说的作者马克·吐温，生于1835年，卒于1910年，小说写作于1884年，小说的背景设定是1850年左右。我因为自己中学时代学习历史地理时，老师们教课以死记硬背为主，大学之后所有这些强背强记却无法形成生动印象的知识便如数还给了老师，导致我对某些历史年代、某些特殊地点茫然不知，而文学与历史，政治与社会,乃至哲学与心理，莫不有时代渊源，莫不需历史土壤，如今身为人师，我深知要补的功课很多，同时也有意识地让我的学生在学习文化之初就浸润在大的历史背景之中。
只是马克·吐温笔下的小男孩Huck，恰恰是个没有受到过家庭、学校、社会教育的流浪儿，整天东游西荡，语言粗鲁，行为不羁，正是这样一个与“文明社会”格格不入的少年，才有可能摆脱环境的成见，与“低等的”黑奴相交相惜。但即便如此，自始至终Huck都认为自己帮助Jim是一件邪恶的事，毕竟这是他所在的白人社会普遍持有的观念，且看这一段他和Jim同乘木筏前往“自由之地”的心理挣扎：
Jim said it made him all over trembly and feverish to be so close to freedom. Well, I can tell you it made me all over trembly and feverish, too, to hear him, because I begun to get it through my head that he was most free—and who was to blame for it? Why, me. I couldn’t get that out of my conscience, no how nor no way. It got to troubling me so I couldn’t rest; I couldn’t stay still in one place. It hadn’t ever come home to me before, what this thing was that I was doing. But now it did; and it stayed with me, and scorched me more and more. I tried to make out to myself that I warn’t to blame, because I didn’t run Jim off from his rightful owner; but it warn’t no use, conscience up and says, every time, “But you knowed he was running for his freedom, and you could ‘a’ paddled ashore and told somebody.” That was so—I couldn’t get around that no way. That was where it pinched.
终于Huck受不了这样的心理折磨了，他决定到附近的船上去告发Jim，而Jim浑然不知，以为自己快到了传说中的“自由之地”，欢喜不已，催促Huck去附近的船上问一问：
He jumped and got the canoe ready, and put his old coat in the bottom for me to set on, and give me the paddle; and as I shoved off, he says:
“Pooty soon I’ll be a shout’n’ for joy, en I’ll say, it’s all on accounts o’ Huck; I’s a free man, en I couldn’t ever ben free ef it hadn’t ben for Huck; Huck done it. Jim won’t ever forgit you, Huck; you’s de bes’ fren’ Jim’s ever had; en you’s de only fren’ ole Jim’s got now.”
黑奴这样真诚的表白，我闻尤怜：
I was paddling off, all in a sweat to tell on him; but when he says this, it seemed to kind of take the tuck all out of me. I went along slow then, and I warn’t right down certain whether I was glad I started or whether I warn’t. When I was fifty yards off, Jim says:
“Dah you goes, de ole true Huck; de on’y white genlman dat ever kep’ his promise to ole Jim.”
Huck终于不能忍心告发Jim，他打发走那艘船上的人，溜了一圈回来，感觉特别沮丧：
They went off and I got aboard the raft, feeling bad and low, because I knowed very well I had done wrong, and I see it warn’t no use for me to try to learn to do right. Then I thought for minute, and says to myself, hold on; s’pose you’d ‘a’ done right and give Jim up, would you felt better than what you do now? No, says I, I’d feel bad—I’d feel just the same way I do now. Well, then, says I, what’s the use you learning to do right when it’s troublesome to do right and ain’t no trouble to do wrong, and the wages is just the same? I was stuck. I couldn’t answer that. So I reckoned I wouldn’t bother no more about it, but after this always do whichever come handiest at the time.
马克·吐温被誉为幽默与讽刺的大师，在这部小说中，他的这一文学技法已经运用得炉火纯青。以Huck的“理智”，根本无法理解自己的经历，他只是如实地陈述自己的感受。他认定自己错得离谱，读者却感觉他走在正确的路上，这种偏差便形成反讽的效果，再加他那一本正经的语气—
“唉，感觉糟透了，我怎么总是学不会去做一点正确的事呢！没有告发Jim，我知道我大错特错啦，他可是个在逃的黑奴。但如果真的告发了Jim，做了正确的事，我的感觉会比现在好一点吗？唔，似乎不会呀，我还是会感觉跟现在一样糟。那既然做一件错误的事和做一件正确的事感觉都一样糟糕，那我干嘛还要费力气去学习做正确的事呢？嗯，算了，不想了，就这样吧，爱咋咋地。”
他这么地恼恨自己这么地困惑无奈，读者却不禁哑然失笑。
除了幽默反讽，马克·吐温还有一个突出的写作特点，即口语化的语言风格，以上原著选段已大概能窥斑一二，这部小说可以说是他语言风格的最高成就之作。Huck作为无人管教的孩子，语言已非规范，黑奴Jim的口语更是恣意，沿河小村庄的居民们也各自有当地的语言特色，马克·吐温在小说中坚持用不同人物的口语去展现他们的生活与思想，贯穿如一，本身不是一件容易的事，就我个人的阅读体验，对读者也并不简单，相较前一部《汤姆·索亚历险记》，口语更加丰富，甚至有的地方我读着读着想跳过去——叽里呱啦Huck你在讲些啥？但又迫切想知道这个小男孩在捣什么鬼，只好安下心来往下看，慢慢便开始熟悉各个人物的语言。他们摸滚打爬，他们起坐笑骂，奔涌的密西西比河激荡起浪花，自由的孩子乘着木筏，前面天高地远，唔，世界真大！
百多年来，多少读者被Huck真实的心灵呓语打动，你什么都不懂，你却让人懂了这么多。心底无私天地宽，大河上的孩子，说的正是你吗？
Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain) is considered to be one of America’s greatest humorists and writers. He is perhaps best known for his novels about boyhood life on the Mississippi River in the mid-19th Century: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, considered to be Twain's greatest contribution to American literature, and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, both of which were based in part on his adventures as a child along the banks of the Mississippi.About the Author
Under the pen name Mark Twain, Clemens published more than 30 works of literature that included satire, historical fiction, short stories, and nonfiction. Many of his books, including Huckleberry Finn, Tom Sawyer, The Prince and the Pauper, and A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court have become classics.
你什么都不懂，你却让人懂了这么多。红爷说
马克吐温说，I have never let my schooling interfere with my education.
我从没让上学扰乱了我的教育。
他还说，It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt.
别人当我傻就傻呗，那也好过被撬开里里外外瞅个干净结果发现我tm是清白的啊。
吐温大叔看的是气质，任周遭的世界一塌糊涂，我自花开一处。
所以大胆一点，骄傲一点，别人都喜欢你不喜欢的Chanel时，你可以喜欢点别的。
兰卿娘，热爱文学的英语教师。
古诗唱：
风风雨雨寒寒暖暖 处处寻寻觅觅
莺莺燕燕花花叶叶 卿卿暮暮朝朝
英诗吟：
To see a world in a grain of sand
And a heaven in a wild flower
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand
And eternity in an hour
她说：
原来中西相通，古今一物。朝暮之间，一粒沙里折射着怎样的世界？风雨之中，半瓣花上透视出怎样的人情？一起伸开手掌吧，看看这无穷无极之中，刹那如何成就永恒。
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